Business & Tech

Second Annual Fill a Brown Bag Drive Under Way

Created by best friends Tina Hagerman and LisaMarie Bower the drive, with Montville small biz on board, continues until Dec. 22: "We're a team and this is how we roll."

 

These women, who call themselves 'the girls of Montville,' are driven; unstoppable in their mission to help ensure Montville folks that need help getting food for their family pantry get that help at the Montville Food Bank.

“We started because we saw nothing at the Food Bank (on a visit there last year),” LisaMarie Bower explained.  “I called Kathi (Kathleen Doherty-Peck, Montville Social and Senior Service director). We saw they had nothing.”

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

So Bower and her best friend and partner Tina Hagerman started the  Fill a Brown Bag Drive where they dropped off paper bags on doorsteps across town and then back out they went, with their kids in tow in many cases (“They had fun,” Bower said.) to pick them up, street by street, house by house.

This year Bower and Hagerman, moms who both work at the Cumberland Farms in Norwich albeit different shifts, and who also own a thrift store in Danielson enlisted the support of local businesses to serve as drop off points for the filled brown paper bags.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Why do they do it?

“We get emotional. When we first saw this we were both up all night. What can we do to help,” explained Bower, mother of two originally from East Lyme.

Hagerman, who has lived in Montville “since I was 2; I’m 41 now” said she had “no idea” there was a food bank  in town.

“I didn’t know. My mother in law, she’s 65, she had no idea Montville had a food bank. “

“One lady I know we almost had to drag her down to the food bank; she’s well known and she needed food. She was embarrassed.  It was so sad.  We had to help,” Bower said.

Hagerman said she “knows everybody in town and there’s a lot of (people) I know their families’ aren’t doing well; so-and so’s  father just lost his job. It’s sad.”

So that was it: “We’re a team and this is how we roll. We are going to keep doing this,” Bower said.

Pick up or drop off brown paper bags at doctors Kurzman and Lacy’s office at 907 Norwich-New London Turnpike, Uncasville,  Tuesday to Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; IGA/Best Way at 1226 Old Colchester Road, Oakdale seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Montville Pizza at 150 Norwich-New London Turnpike, Uncasville seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

All food will be donated to the Montville food pantry. 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here